I’m a long time supporter of Sikorsky helicopters but even their best designs will eventually manifest problems. These problems will eventually be solved and as the designs build time the problems are fewer and far between and the seriousness of the problems lessen. The S-92 was designed with the lessons learned from previous designs and it has been designed to the latest FAA design standards. Even with this it will still have teething problems and hopefully these problems will be small and quickly rectified.
The EH-101 was designed to the standards existing twenty or so years ago and a lot of things were not considered relative to safety, reliability, and maintainability. If Lockheed wants to enter the US-101 into competition with the S-92 it will have to redesign the airframe for crashworthiness, to redesign the dynamic systems to improve the airworthiness and the robustness of critical parts in the rotor system and to redesign many of the critical parts to improve safety and reliability. In other words if they are to successfully compete there will have to be a significant redesign and recertification and as such the US-101 will only reflect the EH-101 in planform and not much else.
